THE BOX

The Five Things You Need To Know for January 22, 2019

Happy Wednesday, y’all! We’re almost there!

  1. It’s BCP E-Harmony Time!: Let’s make a connection, shall we? Going back through the FHSAA Classifieds for the past two weeks, here’s who’s looking for a little love in our area, plus, some squads that are willing to do business. Week 1: Wekiva (wants a H/A) and will provide plenty of value to anyone’s schedule and some pretty stiff competition to boot. Week 2: Largo and Zephyrhills, slide into someone’s DM’s…and for the uber-adventurous, there’s Chaminade-Madonna, and Kissimmee Osceola, both of which are looking for hoe and away. Week 3: Lakewood, and Lakeland Christian needs games, and for the northern squads, Lake Weir needs a game and is a quicker trip than you think up I-75. Week 4: Manatee, Berkeley Prep, and Lakewood all need games locally. Also of note–Wekiva needs a week 4 game, and might we suggest North Marion–who wants to come to you this season with a return trip in 2020 to Marion County. Week 5: The aforementioned Lake Weir–located just to the northeast of The Villages is looking for a game this week as well. Week 6: Lakewood, now in Class 4A, needs a game for this week, as well as Chaminade-Madonna in addition to their week 2 (and week 8) game. Week 7: River Ridge and Largo–those DM’s–slide into them like Ricky Henderson already! Also needing games locally that week are Manatee, Nature Coast Tech, and Lakewood Ranch. Week 8: Berkeley Prep, Lakewood, and Chaminade-Madonna are looking. Week 9: Manatee, Braden River, Berkeley Prep, Frostproof, and Seffner Christian locally, plus Kissimmee Osceola–if you need them. Week 10: Berkeley Prep, Palmetto, and Frostproof need games. Week 11: Manatee, Braden River, River Ridge, Hardee, Nature Coast Tech, Lakewood Ranch, Berkeley Prep, and Seffner Christian all are lookin’, plus if you want a *really* sweet deal, might we suggest Naples? Got all that? Now let’s make some magic, folks!
  2. Dufflebag Boys: According to all-things-Sports Business and Sports Betting, and from the Action Network, Darren Rovell: The 2018 Winter Olympics for Comcast (via NBC) brought in a haul of $770 million in revenue, plus an additional $378 million from their Universal Networks that can be found spread out across the guide. That’s roughly $1.15 (B)illion dollars in revenue alone. Couple that with NBC’s $423 million from the Super Bowl in revenue, and you’ve got to say it was a good year. Of course, that’s just revenue, and economics ain’t that simple, folks. Back to the numbers themselves, the Winter Olympics aren’t the Summer Olympics, so that’s a pretty good haul in that aspect alone. But while folks may be pointing at that figure and saying “SEE! FOOTBALL ISN’T GONNA LAST MUCH LONGER HURRRR DERRRRR!”, but consider this–that’s a 4-year event and depends on the rest of the GLOBE to supply the product. The Super Bowl–an inherently American product played by Americans–a yearly event–registered more than 50% of NBC’s revenue. The NFL, warts and all, ain’t going nowhere, it’s your cable bill for Comcast, even with the windfall, that’s the only thing going somewhere–and probably not the right direction.
  3. Florida HSFB is actually good, Case No. 7,467: The old (or is it new?) or the original, or WHATEVER the NSD we used to know and love is just around the corner, and with that, let’s have some fun with numbers without much context other than to brag without shame, shall we? We deeply apologize for the lack of attribution on this, but trust, we didn’t have this first. On to the fun. According to the number of offers each team from the SEC has offered in-state players, we find out that water is wet, and the sun is in fact, hot. Arkansas is the lowest with just 4 offers to players from the home state. The list continues–South Carolina-7, Ole Miss-10, Mississippi State-11, Alabama-11, Kentucky-11, LSU-13, Auburn-14, Vanderbilt-14, Missouri-16, Tennessee-19, Georgia-29, Texas A&M-33, FLORIDA-51….but-BUT…nah–no buts. It’s great–to live and play–in the Sunshine State!
  4. SALUTE: There are coaches who intentionally withhold information about their rosters just to protect themselves from poachers and the FHSAA rules committees, so when a gesture such as this happens, then we’ve GOT TO show some proper respect. While it may be hard for some to realize, it’s an easy job to drive across the bay for greener pastures, and without traditional borders, it’s a high stakes game nowadays. But Plant’s Head Coach Robert Weiner asked to give the message to Clearwater’s outgoing senior class last night was all about class and respect from Head Coach Don Mesick and his staff. If you’ve been around Coach Weiner long enough, you’d think that Bill Belichick stole the “Do Your Job” mantra. Weiner’s message about seeking the higher ground must’ve been a good one, because his presence in front of an audience is something else. It’s bigger than football and quite frankly–asking Coach Weiner about anything-but football will make you a better person, period. Congrats to all involved and we’re willing to bet that those young men will take that moment with them for the rest of their lives. Well done, Clearwater and Plant!
  5. This next story needs no introduction. Just click it and read. Happy Wednesday and see y’all tomorrow. Be blessed!